SA Roadtests
South Africa
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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.
This is a launch report. In other words, it's simply a new model announcement. The driving experience was limited to a short drive over a prepared course chosen to make the product look good. We can therefore not tell you what it will be like to live with over an extended period, how economical it is, or how reliable it will be. A very brief first impression is all we can give you until such time as we get an actual test unit for trial. Thank you for your patience.
Pics supplied by VWSA
If someone says: "Volkswagen Caddy," and you immediately think of a half-ton pickup with the face of a Mark 1 Golf, you're showing your age. The world has moved on since then, with the name belonging to a range of small panel vans and compact people movers available in SA since 2004. In that time the 'van has captured about 60 percent of the half-ton closed goods transporter market that accounts in turn for about two percent of commercial vehicles sold.
The news is that VW has updated the Caddy's physical appearance with a healthy injection of T5 and Amarok design elements while making some changes in the engine line-up. The 75 kW, 1600 cc, petrol engine remains as entry-level choice for standard wheelbase panel van and Trendline models. Trendline? Yes, the Life appellation has been dropped to bring naming back into line with other model ranges.
Both diesel engines available in the previous line-up have been retired and replaced with two versions of a new DOHC, 16-valve 2,0 litre common rail oil burner. These put out 81 kW/250 Nm and 103 kW/320 Nm respectively, with the more powerful one offered only in the Maxi (lwb) Trendline 'bus and only with a six-speed DSG gearbox. The 81 kilo-Watter slots into both short and long Trendlines and into short and long panel vans, plus the long wheelbase Crew Bus.
This is a basic people mover with five seats (seven optional), ISOFIX child seat preparation, rubber mats, a two-speaker radio and CD unit and hand-operated windows and outside mirrors. It also gains a heated rear window with wash/wipe and a sliding window on the left rear door. Gearbox for all 1600 cc petrol and 81 kW diesel variants is a five-speed manual shifter.
Suspension on all models is McPherson struts and stabiliser bar in front with leaf springs and stabiliser bar at the back. Brakes are discs front and rear, while ABS, ESP, electronic differential lock, traction control, power steering and engine drag torque control are common across the range. Safety and security fittings common to all, include daytime running lights, high level third brake light, child locks on sliding doors, immobiliser, remote central locking and anti-theft alarm. Even the most basic ‘van has a driver's airbag (passenger bag optional), with Trendline models boasting four altogether.
Payloads in the panel vans are quoted as 741 kg (swb) and 813 kg (lwb), with load volumes of 3200- and 4200 litres respectively. Turning circles are 11,1 and 12,2 metres in each case. Tailgate width and height are given as 1185 mm and 1129 mm. In the load compartment, length varies between 1781 and 2250 mm, height is 1244 (swb) or 1262 mm (lwb) and width is 1552 mm with 1172 mm between the wheel arches. Side doors, of which you get one on swb and two on lwb, measure 701 mm wide by 1100 mm high. The maxi 'van sports a driver's partition.
Trendline models gain standard passenger airbag, front side airbags, carpeting, air conditioning system in cab, multi function display, driver's seat belt reminder, ‘Milan’ cloth seat covering, RCD 210 Radio/CD with six loudspeakers, electrically adjustable and heated exterior mirrors, electric windows, sun visors with vanity mirrors, full wheel covers, body coloured bumpers and exterior mirror housings, height adjustable front seats, storage drawers under front seats, two net pouches in the passenger compartment, centre console with armrest and three cup holders, fog lights with cornering feature, heated rear window with wiper/washer system, sliding windows in both sliding doors, fixed rear side windows and a 12-volt socket in the luggage compartment. Maxi Trendline standard features include a 2-seater bench in a third row and ‘Siracusa’ alloy wheels fitted with 205/55 R16 tyres.
Options vary a bit according to model, but include towbar packages with trailer stabilisation, comfort packages and communication packages with upgraded radio and CD unit, multifunction steering wheel and Bluetooth mobile phone preparation.
Depending on specification, there are up to 24 storage compartments or nets located in doors, central console and armrest, the dashboard, the floor in front of the second row of seats, under the driver’s and front passenger’s seat and in the roof. The last-mentioned is a deep and wide compartment above the windscreen, made for panel van drivers to stash clipboards and heaven-knows-what-else. It is carried over into Trendline models and should prove very useful for both frantic mums and the chronically untidy.
This journalist and his co-pilot for the day shared an 81 kW diesel Maxi Trendline family carrier with five-speed manual 'box. It was spacious, smooth, responsive, practical with manual sliding windows in the kid seat area and very comfortable. Add-on hood lining and the clipboard compartment made it evident that this was an upgraded commercial vehicle, but it was very liveable nonetheless.
The numbers
Panel van prices range between R172 940 and R209 200, with the Crew Bus at R219 200.
Passenger models start at R240 110 and go up to R292 080
Engines:
1598 cc petrol - 75 kW at 5600 rpm and 148 Nm at 3800 rpm
1968 cc TDI - 81 kW at 4200 rpm and 250 Nm between 1750 and 2750 rpm
1968 cc TDI - 103 kW at 4200 rpm and 320 Nm between 1500 and 2500 rpm
Fuel economy (claimed):
1600 cc petrol - 8,2 l/100 km
81 kW diesel - 5,6 l to 5,8 l/100
103 kW diesel - 6,3 l/100 km
Warranty: Commercials - 2 years/unlimited; Passenger - 3 years/120 000 km
Service intervals: 15 000 km
Service and maintenance plans: Optional on all models
To catch up with the 2016 models click here
This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.
What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8